Cool, Wet Conditions Limited Track Time Again on Fast Friday at IMS; Servia Optimistic About His Short Run But Rahal Didn’t Turn a Fast Lap

COOL, WET CONDITIONS LIMITED TRACK TIME AGAIN ON FAST FRIDAY; SERVIA OPTIMISTIC ABOUT HIS SHORT RUN BUT RAHAL DIDN’T TURN A FAST LAP

1) Ed Carpenter 230.522 mph 8 laps

18) Oriol Servia 226.387 mph 8 laps

25) Graham Rahal 54.039 mph 2 laps

OVERALL: Morning showers delayed the start of today’s final practice from the scheduled 12 p.m. EDT start until just after 2 p.m. Additional showers brought an end to the day after approx. 20 minutes of green-flag time.

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think we have a pretty good car but we haven’t trimmed out once yet this week, so we’re going to find out tomorrow. Tomorrow morning’s practice is going to be busy. We have a lot of tires and we’re going to have to pump through a lot of stuff in a hurry.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his seventh Indy 500… His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 after he led six laps… He ran in the top-five in four of his six previous races here… In 2008, with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, he was the highest Indy 500 starter of the Champ Car transitioning teams with his 13th place qualifying effort but made contact on L36 after driving high to avoid the slower car of Lloyd and retired in 33rd place… He qualified fourth for NHLR in the 2009 Indy 500 but made contact on L56 while fifth and retired in 31st… In 2010, he competed for his father’s team – RLL – for the first time in an Indy car. He qualified seventh and ran as high as second but a blocking penalty on L188/200 dropped him from third to a 12th place finish… He qualified 29th with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and earned his best finish at Indy to date of third place after he led six laps… In 2012, he qualified 12th, ran as high as third and finished 13th for SCCGR… In 2013, he qualified 26th and pitted from ninth place for his second to last stop and his outside rear tire changer had a mechanical problem and Rahal returned to the track in 21st place. He was in 17th with eight laps to go and lost control of his car in Turn 2 and made contact with the wall… His Indy car highlights include a win (2008) and pole (2009) in St. Petersburg.

ORIOL SERVIA, No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We did look decent on speeds without the tow and were sixth on the no tow list which was decent and at least in the top-10. Its only one run so you can’t really read too much into it but it’s a good start. Unfortunately we didn’t run much more which we all wanted to do. It will be an even interesting qualifying weekend. It’s not what you want. For one, you want to try the high boost because we’re all going to go five or six miles an hour faster than we were yesterday and we all have to trim (aerodynamics) and really feel how the car is going to be but at the end of the day everyone is in the same boat so you just need to think that you want to be just a little bit better than they are in your head because of course you have a lot of unknowns going into qualifying. Tomorrow’s practice, if it stays dry, is supposed to take place in really cold conditions — even colder than it was today. It’s another awkward Month of May weather wise and I’m sure that race day will be really hot and we’ve been running in really cold conditions. We’re going to have to get our engineers punching some numbers to make a good guess on what the cars are going to do when it gets warmer.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his sixth Indy 500 race here and second with RLL at this track… His best finish is fifth in 2011 and best start is third the same season with Newman/Haas Racing… In 2013 he drove for Panther/DRR where he started 13th, ran as high as fifth and finished 11th… In 2012, he drove for DRR where he qualified 27th and finished fourth… In 2011 he started on the front row (third) with Newman/Haas Racing. He was on pole until the final two qualifiers made their attempts. In the race, he led 18 laps and stayed in the lead pack the entire race to contend for the win in the last 50 laps but the fuel strategy of others limited his finish to a disappointing sixth place… Was running 10th in the 2009 race with Rahal Letterman Racing when a fuel pressure problem forced him to retire after 98/200 laps. He qualified 25th and retired in 26th… Ran as high as eighth and finished 11th in 2008 with KV Racing after he qualified 25th… His Indy car highlights include one win (Montreal 2005) and one pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia 2005).

NEXT UP: The first day of qualifying will take place tomorrow to lock-in the top-30 starting positions. ABC will begin coverage at 4 p.m. EDT. The final round of qualifying will take place on Sunday and will determine the starting order for the 33-car field. ABC will begin coverage that day at 1 p.m. EDT. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes live commentary by the IMS Radio Network.

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